Protect the passenger ship Blue Whale

While countering Rimuria Fleet's attack, Shin nosuke positioned Cerberus between the Blue Whale and the Rimuria Fleet.

"Enemy ships are the Imperial Navy's Aqua Lance-class cruisers and Fire Sword-class destroyers—both the latest advanced vessels of the Imperial regular forces."

Shin nosuke nodded in response to Marks' report.

Understood. Sera, contact Blue Whale and instruct it to escape as is. I'll cover your rear, so don't worry about what's behind you. Proceed at full speed toward Acneria.

Understood.

Leave the selection of the escape route to Sera. Guide Blue Whale accordingly.

Huh? Y-yes, sir!

Shin nosuke concentrated the Cerberus's energy shield on the bow side, facing the Rimuria vessel directly while backing up the ship and following behind Blue Whale.

"Markus, handle all weapons except the main cannon. You have subweapon control."

"Understood. Any need for restraint?"

"None! We're already at a severe disadvantage. Even if it's difficult, sink them if you get the chance."

"Understood."

Shin nosuke avoided attacks coming from the Lemuria ship while retreating from Cerberus, deflecting those aimed at the Blue Whale with his energy shield, and sought opportunities for decisive strikes.

Meanwhile, Mireena, the only one not receiving orders from Shin nosuke, watched his movements intently from the co-pilot's seat.

A third eye was open on his forehead, allowing him to predict enemy attacks through foresight as he manipulated the steering wheel and other controls.

Of course, whether he turned the wheel or adjusted the throttle lever, the co-pilot's seat remained disconnected from the ship's systems, rendering his actions ineffective.

This was merely mental training for becoming a pilot.

Miraculously, Milena's movements, which possess precognitive abilities, are nearly synchronized with Shinnosuke's ship handling.

Though Shinnosuke's actions lag by just an instant behind Milena's movements guided by foresight, his ship handling—despite lacking precognitive abilities—is astonishing.

(You're incredible, Shinnosuke-sama. Dodging attacks with such precision without any special ability. And protecting the Blue Whale behind you while retreating—almost as if you had eyes in the back of your head.)

Milena, the one with the third eye on her forehead, stares in astonishment, momentarily forgetting her own superiority.

Of course, Shinnosuke couldn't possibly have any special abilities.

Shinnosuke was simply piloting the ship by watching the enemy vessel's movements on the monitor and timing his actions accordingly—his actions just happened to coincide with Milena's foresight.

To her surprise, Shinnosuke occasionally dodged in the exact opposite direction to what Milena foresaw as the danger, yet those movements somehow turned out to be the best possible choice.

At first glance, the action seemed like a risky gamble based purely on instinct, but it was not merely a matter of instinct. It was the highly refined interplay of battlefield experience and the intuition grounded in that experience, resulting in a decisive, confident move.

That said, this was no longer the outdated warship previously encountered by the Imperial special forces—it was the Imperial Navy's latest advanced cruiser and destroyer.

Markus, even he who operated the rapid-fire cannons and Gatling guns, could only barely dodge the attacks, managing no more than distracting counterattacks to slow down the pursuit.

"Exiting the domain of the Damura Star Cluster Republic."

Hearing Seira's voice, Shinnosuke eased back the throttle, reducing the retreat speed.

"Good. Proceed straight toward the Blue Whale. Once we reach the designated point, relay orders to jump through space and flee. This ship will hold the enemy at bay right here."

"Understood!"

The Kerberos had stopped at the edge of the exclusive economic space beyond the Damura Star Cluster Republic's territory.

By invading the Damura Star Cluster Republic, the Rimulia Galactic Empire has already violated international law; launching military actions beyond the Republic's territory constitutes an even greater breach, inviting condemnation from galactic nations outside the Republic as well.

"So, what will it be? Shall we make enemies beyond the Republic?"

Despite Shinosuke's words, the three Rimulia ships continued their attack even after exiting the Republic's territory.

"Enemy vessel movements unchanged. Returning fire."

Marks began unleashing concentrated fire from his rapid-fire cannons and Gatling guns.

"Understood! Then I'll make them look foolish!"

Shinosuke adjusted the main cannon's angle by manipulating the joystick on the steering wheel lever.

(Wha—manual targeting? That's unusual!)

Milena stared in disbelief at Shinosuke's hands.

Shinosuke was manually aiming instead of relying on the system's automatic targeting—a rare move.

On Shinosuke’s glass monitor, instead of a lock-on marker, a predicted impact point marker appeared.

While automatic targeting would have taken less than a second, Shinosuke’s manual aiming took about three seconds.

In combat, a two-second difference could be fatal—but Shinosuke had staked everything on those two seconds.

"Main cannon fired!"

Shinosuke fixed his aim and pulled the trigger.

The fired laser grazed the port side of the lead cruiser.

"Did we miss?"

Mireena gasped, but Shinosuke wore a confident smile.

"Good, right on target."

"Huh?"

When Mireena looked at the monitor, she saw the cruiser with damage to its port side beginning to spin.

Shinonsuke wasn't aiming to sink the enemy vessel.

He was targeting the ship's power systems by grazing the hull, rendering it incapable of movement.

Since ships of the Rimuria Galactic Empire have streamlined hulls without protruding engines like the Cerberus, he couldn't target the engines directly—but disabling the power systems was still achievable.

With automatic targeting, the system aims directly at the enemy ship's center, but manual targeting allows for precise point targeting without alerting the enemy vessel to being locked on.

I have no hesitation in sinking a single enemy vessel, but this is a warship with an established command structure.

Sinking the command cruiser could result in other destroyers taking over command and launching an even stronger offensive.

Thus, Shinosuke devised a strategy to halt the enemy without disrupting their command structure.

Just as Shinosuke had intended, the two destroyers also came to a stop, along with the disabled cruiser.

Seizing the opportunity, Shinosuke didn't hesitate.

"Good! Now's our chance!"

He turned the Cerberus around, slammed the throttle lever forward, and sped away from the spot.

"Rimurian ships... they're not pursuing."

"Excellent work, Master Shinnosuke."

Seyla and Milena, both visibly relieved.

"Well, it worked out nicely. Good thing we had a commander who knew when to retreat."

"Wait—what does that mean?"

"I don't know what the Rimurian fleet was aiming for when they attacked the Blue Whale, but launching an assault on a civilian vessel mid-aggression and then fleeing—then failing to take down the civilian escort corvette, even after deploying three ships—two cruisers and a destroyer—was a complete embarrassment. Had they pushed forward without backing down, we might have found an opening, but fortunately, the enemy commander stopped just short of disaster. I don't know how they'll report this to higher-ups, but I doubt they'd want to add further shame to the situation. At least now we can breathe easy."

After shaking off the Lemurian ship, the Cerberus reached the spatial jump point toward Acneria.

"Approaching jump point. No anomalies detected in surrounding space. We're clear to jump at any time."

"Understood. Accelerating to jump speed. Countdown. Five, four, three, two, one, Waa—"

"Initiating spatial jump!"

"Come on, let's go home!"

The cheerful voices of Seira and Milina, having escaped the crisis, echoed across the bridge.